My doubles partner is very close to getting bumped from 4.0 to 4.5. Last year he was an early start 4.5 in October but a year end 4.0 in November.

This year we again won our district and went to sectionals ... he is again an early start 4.5 this year ... but this is where the story gets interesting.

On the first Friday of sectionals we split two very tight matches, each going to the 3rd set match tiebreaker. At the end of the day he fainted, fell down had a concussion and spent the night vomiting. He did not play either match on Saturday, but his brother did winning two matches. However, the coordinators got the names switched and entered my partner as having won those two matches in sectionals on the day he did not play.

Then on Sunday in our final match at sectionals my partner decided he was going to play come hell or high water. He played with someone else and was spanked, probably because he was sore and woozy .... however the coordinator did not enter any of the match results from Sunday ... I think because the champion had already been decided.

So the summary is that my partner who is very close to getting the bump is getting credit for two wins at sectionals he did not play and in the match he was spanked he is not getting the "ratings harm" he would get.

From what I think I know about USTA ratings ... these matches at sectionals carry a lot of weight in his year end rating ... which in this circumstance would cause his rating to be inflated. Particularly troubling is that for someone very close to the line this certainly could push someone up or down.

What is surprising (or perhaps not) is that 5 e-mails to the section coordinator to have the issue resolved have gone unanswered.

So the summary is that my partner who is very close to getting the bump is getting credit for two wins at sectionals he did not play and in the match he was spanked he is not getting the "ratings harm" he would get.

Presumably he is estatic, since now he is more likely to be bumped and get to play challenging tennis and better quality tennis, no?

Or is he upset since he may no longer get to beat up on weaker players? (by definition if he is close to 4.5 boundary, then he is stronger than the vast majority of 4.0s)

The outcry will be sufficiently loud and anguished to get the matter resolved.

This might in fact work, except the other captains would welcome him getting bumped up ...

Last year when half our team was early start bumped and then year end moved back down, she received lots of complaints. SO I doubt anyone would claim he is unfairly getting bonus points for sectionals.

Continuing the saga ... prior to the new ratings being published the middles states did not change the inaccurately entered match results, nor did they input the the last matches played at sectionals into the computer.

Our captain complained a 5th time and the woman in charge of ratings for middle states said ... "it only really matters for 2 guys, one bumped, one not".

Anywho, our captain is pushing to get the scores corrected. The middles states lady now claims she will send the corrected scores to the national organization and see if their ratings get changed.

We will see ... but it sure is frustrating trying to get the USTA to simply be accurate.

I will point out that since Friday tennis link is now corrected. This change occurred after the new ratings were published. I doubt we will ever know if anyone took the time to see if the correct match results actually changed either of the affected parties up or down.

Presumably he is estatic, since now he is more likely to be bumped and get to play challenging tennis and better quality tennis, no?

Or is he upset since he may no longer get to beat up on weaker players? (by definition if he is close to 4.5 boundary, then he is stronger than the vast majority of 4.0s)

It doesn't necessarily have to be one or the other. He could be winning 7 out of 10 matches and many of them could still be competitive. Typically in my experience, when someone is on the fence, they are having very good, competitive matches at their level; they just happen to be winning the majority of them. We've had a number of guys get the boot from 4.5 to 5.0 who had very close, quality matches but were on the winning end. Then they go to 5.0 and maybe win 1 out of every 5 matches, with the 4 losses being relatively lopsided.

Personally, I'd rather have competitive matches and win than have lopsided matches and lose.

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